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Gay Foster Parents Who Sexually Abused Boys Get Only 5 Years In Jail

By Gudrun Schultz

ENGLAND, United Kingdom, June 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A homosexual couple who sexually abused foster boys placed in their care have received sentences of only five and six years, reported the Times Online on Saturday.

The two men, Ian Wathey, 41, and Craig Faunch, 32, were convicted of sexually molesting 4 foster boys aged 8 to 14 years.

The men were approved as foster caregivers three years ago by the Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, reported the Times, and within just a few months began molesting boys placed in their care. Both men were convicted of multiple counts of sexual activity with two 14 year old boys, and Faunch was convicted of using a camcorder to film two eight year old boys while they showered. Wathey was also found guilty of encouraging a child to watch homosexual pornography.

For their abuse of the children, Wathey received a sentence of five years, and Faunch of six years.

Earlier this month, the U.K. was horrified when the minimum five-year sentence was handed to a pedophile convicted of the abduction and rape of a three-year old girl. Craig Sweeney, who was recently out on early release from a three-year sentence for indecently assaulting a six-year old girl, abducted the toddler from her home and assaulted her in his apartment, injuring her so severely that she required hospitalization. For that crime he was sentenced to life in prison but told he would be eligible for parole in just five years.

Social services were told early on that Wathey and Faunch had taken a photo of a foster boy urinating, but they accepted the men’s defence that they were just trying to embarrass the boys into closing the bathroom door, saying the men had been “naïve and silly” for taking the picture.

Wakefield social services have said that the department has reviewed procedures to discover the lessons to be learned, and that a full independent inquiry is to be held.

Michele Elliott, director of children’s charity Kidscape, told the BBC that the council should bear some responsibility for failing to act on the earlier report, and condemned the short sentencing given to the couple.

“[The men] have left four children traumatised and abused the trust that was placed in them. I think the fact they used foster caring to get to and abuse children is such a breach of trust they should have got a minimum sentence of 10 years.”

A 2002 report published by the US Family Research Council compiled evidence indicating a definite link between homosexuality and pedophilia. Statistics show that homosexual men, who represent less than 3 percent of the adult male population, commit a disproportionate number (one-third or more) of the cases of child sexual molestation.

The UK government passed a bill in 2002 allowing homosexual couples to adopt children.

Ian Wathey and Craig Faunch entered a civil partnership five weeks ago, under the UK’s new legislation recognizing same-sex unions.

Read the Times coverage:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2240604,00.html

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

REPORT SHOWS LINK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALITY AND CHILD ABUSE
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/may/02053107.html

UK LABOUR GOVERNMENT PASSES HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/nov/02110411.html

Scotland Parliament Plans to Go Ahead with Gay Adoption Despite 89% Opposition
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06051807.html

 

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